MANILA: The Philippines has deported two Indian nationals who were suspected of being members of a banned Sikh separatist group, a government agency said on Friday.
Three Indian men linked to the Khalistan Tiger Force, a violent group fighting for an independent Sikh state — Khalistan — were arrested by Philippine authorities in March. They were named in a red notice issued by the global police agency Interpol.
Their presence in the Philippines coincided with a massive manhunt for Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh, who earlier this year revived sentiments for the establishment of Khalistan in the Indian northern state of Punjab, which has a history of violent insurgency.
Singh was arrested in late April.
The KTF men detained in the Philippines were, according to the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, facing charges of murder and slipped into the country on fake passports.
“Two Indian nationals who are suspected members of the terrorist organization Khalistan Tiger Force, were deported last night despite a last-ditch effort to escape,” the CICC said in a statement.
The center’s statement added that the men were escorted on board a Thai Airways flight from Manila to New Delhi via Bangkok by Philippine Bureau of Immigration agents, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, and the police attache of the Indian Embassy in Manila.
The CICC’s executive director, Alexander Ramos, told Arab News that the third KTF suspect remained in the Philippines, as he was still facing trial in an extortion case.
More members of the militant group are likely to have entered the Southeast Asian country. According to Ramos, they are still at large.
“There are remaining members of the group in the country,” he said. “We are ascertaining first their real identity. They used fake identities when they entered the country.”
The Khalistan movement is outlawed in India. Its armed campaign from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s prompted a controversial military operation which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.
Philippines deports to India suspected members of Sikh separatist group
https://arab.news/zvft7
Philippines deports to India suspected members of Sikh separatist group
- 3 Indian suspects were arrested in Philippines in March
- More members of militant group likely to remain in country
Leo XIV’s brother recalls feeling of ‘disbelief’ over his sibling becoming pope
- John Prevost described his brother as being very concerned for the poor and those who don’t have a voice
- That makes the Chicago-born missionary the first US pope
“She started screaming because it was her uncle and I was in the moment of disbelief that this cannot be possible because it’s too far from what we thought would happen,” Prevost said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press from his home in New Lenox, Illinois.
Next, he said he felt an intense sense of pride that his brother, Cardinal Robert Prevost, had become the 267th pontiff to lead the Catholic Church, making the Chicago-born missionary the first US pope.
“It’s quite an honor; it’s quite a once in a lifetime,” he said. “But I think it’s quite a responsibility and I think it’s going to lead to bigger and better things, but I think people are going to watch him very closely to see what he’s doing.”
Robert Prevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order who spent his career ministering in Peru, took the name Leo XIV.
John Prevost described his brother as being very concerned for the poor and those who don’t have a voice. He said he expects him to be a “second Pope Francis.”
“He’s not going to be real far left and he’s not going to be real far right,” he added. “Kind of right down the middle.”
At one point during the interview, John Prevost realized he had missed several calls from his brother, so he gave the new pope a call back.
Leo told him he wasn’t interested in being part of the interview and after a brief message of congratulations and discussion in which they talked like any two brothers about travel arrangements, they hung up.
The new pope grew up the youngest of three boys. John Prevost, who was only a year older than him, said he remembers Robert Prevost being very good in school as a kid and enjoying playing tag, Monopoly and Risk.
From a young age, he said he knew his brother was going to be a priest. Although he didn’t expect him to become pope, he recalled a neighbor predicting that very thing when Robert Prevost was only a first grader.
“She sensed that at 6 years old,” he said. “How she did that, who knows. It took this long, but here he is, first American pope.”
When Robert Prevost graduated eighth grade, he left for seminary school, his brother said.
“There’s a whole period there where we didn’t really grow up together,” he said. “It was just on vacations that we had contact together.”
These days, the brothers talk on the phone every day, John Prevost said. Robert Prevost will call him and they’ll discuss everything from politics to religion and even play the day’s Wordle.
John Prevost said he’s not sure how much time his brother will have to talk as the new pope and how they’ll handle staying in touch in the future.
“It’s already strange not having someone to talk to,” he said.
Judge to hear arguments over whether LA prosecutor should be kicked off Menendez case
- Hochman’s office has denied the accusations and opposes getting kicked off the case
- The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for shooting their entertainment executive father and mother
LOS ANGELES: Attorneys for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of killing their parents in 1989, will make their case to a judge Friday that Los Angeles prosecutors should be removed from the brothers’ resentencing case.
The brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home. The brothers were 18 and 21 at the time of the killings. Defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, while prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
Former LA County District Attorney George Gascón had opened the door to possible freedom for the brothers in October by requesting their sentences be reduced to 50 years with the possibility of parole. His office said the case would’ve been handled differently today due to modern understandings of sexual abuse and trauma, and that the brothers had rehabilitated during their 30 years in prison.
But current district attorney Nathan Hochman has reversed course and opposes the brothers’ resentencing. Hochman has said the brothers have not taken full responsibility for their crimes because they have not admitted to lies told during their trials. The Menendez family and lawyers have been heavily critical of the way Hochman has handled the case.
Hochman’s office filed a motion to oppose his removal from the case, dismissing the defense’s concerns as simply “not being happy” with prosecutors’ opinion on resentencing.
“Disagreeing with the opposing side’s position is not a conflict of interest, it is simply a disagreement,” it said.
While Hochman’s conduct is the focus of defense attorneys’ petition, they want the case entirely removed from the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, in which case the state attorney general’s office would usually step in.
However, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a motion this week siding with Hochman, saying the defense had not adequately demonstrated a conflict of interest.
Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said these types of recusal requests are “almost never” granted.
“Defendants don’t usually get to pick their prosecutors,” she said. “Occasionally an individual prosecutor will be recused, but to recuse an entire office is very rare.”
Generally, this only happens if a prosecutor’s personal family member is involved or if the district attorney’s office received outside payment in a case, Levenson said.
During long-awaited resentencing hearings last month, attorneys engaged in a heated debate over whether material from risk assessments completed by the state parole board at the governor’s order should be admissible in court. The hearings were delayed, and the brothers’ lead attorney Mark Geragos said he would move to recuse Hochman from the case.
In a motion filed April 25, Geragos argued that Hochman’s bias against the brothers and mistreatment of the Menendez family posed a “genuine risk” the brothers would not receive a fair hearing.
He pointed to Hochman’s demotion of Nancy Theberge and Brock Lunsford, the two deputy district attorneys who filed the original resentencing motion. Theberge and Lunsford have since filed lawsuits against Hochman alleging they were punished for their work on the Menendez case.
Hochman also hired Kathleen Cady, who represented Milton Andersen, the only Menendez family member who opposed the brothers’ resentencing at the time, to head his Office of Victim Services. Andersen died in March.
Geragos said no one from the victim services office had ever reached out to the Menendez family to offer support. In mid-April, both Cady and Hochman were present at an organization’s rally to condemn the Menendez brothers’ resentencing, he said.
Finally, Geragos said the district attorney’s office had violated Marsy’s Law, which ensures victims in California are treated with fairness and respect.
Menendez cousin Tamara Goodell filed a complaint with the US Attorney’s Office in which she wrote Hochman used a “hostile, dismissive, and patronizing tone” that left the family “distressed and feeling humiliated.”
Hochman’s motion said the defense had not presented any proof that hiring Cady, a seasoned prosecutor and attorney, prevented his office from treating the Menendez brothers fairly, and that the reassignments of Theberge and Lunsford were “internal staffing decisions.”
Marsy’s Law also does not give victims the right to seek the removal of a prosecutor, the motion said.
The Menendez brothers are still waiting for the full results of a state parole board risk assessment ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. The final hearing, scheduled for June 13, will influence whether Newsom grants the brothers clemency.
Saudi women must share their stories with pride, Princess Noura Al-Saud tells London forum
- The founder of 2 leading Saudi cultural incubators was speaking at the Creative Women Platform
- Networking forum’s CEO, Olga Balakleets, says women are ‘united by their belief in making a creative impact’
LONDON: Saudi creatives are writing and telling their stories to the world after years of borrowing the narratives of others, Princess Noura Al-Saud, the founder of two leading Saudi cultural incubators, said on Wednesday.
“Finally, now, we are taking ownership and writing our own stories. We are proud of it and are showcasing who we really are. (We’re) not trying to fit into other people’s expectations,” she said.
Princess Noura was speaking at the annual networking forum of the Creative Women Platform, of which she is a Saudi patron, at Palastiers’ Hall in London’s Square Mile.
She is the the founder of Rukun Creative Exchange and Almashtal Creative Space, a destination for creatives in Riyadh to receive support and nurture their talent.
On Wednesday, she joined dozens of entrepreneurs, policymakers and business leaders from the food, steel and sports sectors, as well as celebrities, philanthropists and fitness experts, to discuss sustainability and the role of women in shaping the future.
She acknowledged that building a space for creatives could be relatively easy but said that the most critical factor was creating a place of belonging where people could share meaningful experiences.
At Almashtal, which means plant nursery in Arabic, the focus was on the tiny details, such as the interior design and the background music, to foster a cultural identity in the space, Princess Noura said.
“Nature is a major source of inspiration for me. Plant nurseries provide the right climate and nutrition, so the plant builds strong roots to live in the outside world, and this is also our goal at Almashtal,” she told Arab News.
Almashtal, founded in 2019, has four labs focusing on creativity, business, glass and sound, and offers workshops, mentorship and other resources. The space has become essential for sharing ideas, networking and experimenting among Saudi creatives, Princess Noura said.
She told Arab News that Saudi women in the private sector who work in sciences, technology and entrepreneurship should “speak more about their work and achievements, and show the efforts it took to reach this stage.
“I tell them to be proud and share their stories as it will inspire others,” she added.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 has transformed women’s lives in the Kingdom through a series of reforms since 2016 that empowered them to take part in the workforce and business. There are increased opportunities for women to pursue careers in the creative industries such as design, architecture, film, fashion and the arts. The Kingdom made “major strides” in the cultural sectors, according to a 2024 Harvard Business Review report, driven by a “commitment to preserving and showcasing its abundant history, national identity and heritage.”
During a conversation with Olga Balakleets, founder and CEO of the Creative Women Platform, Princess Noura said: “Creativity is essential to life. It is what grounds us ... it is how we connect, and it has always been that for me, and my mission is to help others see and understand that.”
Balakleets told Arab News that her journey with the forum was “an exciting one,” and added that creative women are “united by their belief in making a creative impact,” contributing positively to society by finding solutions to global problems.
At Wednesday’s event, speakers included author and philanthropist Sarah Ferguson, duchess of York; Shaikha Fouz Al-Sabah, founder of Khaleejesque, a Kuwait-based online magazine that covers the cultures of the Arab Gulf youth; and Tessa Clarke, co-founder and CEO of Olio, a community app designed to help people share food and reduce waste. Daniela Baumann, CEO of LOFTI Studios, spoke about the ups and downs that led her to establish a series of pole fitness studios, while Paula Owen, founder and CEO of ECO Action Games, highlighted the importance of raising climate awareness through games and avoiding tactics that induce guilt or fear.
Aswar Kadie, a young entrepreneur of Somali descent who grew up in Sweden, is the founder and CEO of Aswar Sports Agency, established in 2021. She told Arab News that Aswar’s clientele includes football players under 18 and 21 in the Premier League and La Liga academies.
She recently returned from a visit to the Kingdom and said her agency is set to be involved with the Saudi Ministry of Sport as the country prepares to host the FIFA World Cup in 2034. She described the Creative Women Platform as a “huge” opportunity for a woman entrepreneur in a male-dominated industry.
“I always worked with men in a very competitive environment ... coming (to this event), I feel really inspired and the women here have become role models and I’m learning a lot from them,” she said.
The Creative Women Platform will return to Riyadh next November to feature Saudi entrepreneurs and leaders from various sectors, according to organizers.
Since launching in 2016, the networking forum has celebrated the leadership and entrepreneurial achievements of women from more than 50 countries.
Pakistan launched multiple attacks along India’s western border, India says
- Indian army reports repulsing Pakistan’s drone attacks along western border
- Pakistan denies earlier accusations of attacks in Pathankot, Srinagar, Jaisalmer cities
JAMMU/SRINAGAR, India: Pakistan’s armed forces launched “multiple attacks” using drones and other munitions along India’s entire western border on Thursday night and early Friday, the Indian army said, as conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbors intensified.
The old enemies have been clashing since India struck multiple locations in Pakistan on Wednesday that it said were “terrorist camps“ in retaliation for a deadly attack in its restive region of Kashmir last month, in which it said Islamabad was involved.
Pakistan denied the accusation but both countries have exchanged cross-border firing and shelling and sent drones and missiles into each other’s airspace since then, with nearly four dozen people dying in the violence.
The army also said Pakistani troops had resorted to “numerous cease fire violations” along the countries’ de-facto border in Kashmir, a region that is divided between them but claimed in full by both.
“The drone attacks were effectively repulsed and befitting reply was given to the CFVs ,” the army said, adding all “nefarious designs” would be responded to with “force.”
There was no immediate response from Pakistan to the Indian statement.
Islamabad had earlier denied attacking Pathankot city in India’s Punjab state, Srinagar in the Kashmir valley, and Rajasthan state’s Jaisalmer, saying the accusations were “unfounded” and “politically motivated.”
Sirens in Amritsar
A “major infiltration bid” was “foiled” in Kashmir’s Samba region on Thursday night, India’s Border Security Force said, and heavy artillery shelling persisted in the Uri area on Friday, according to a security official who did not want to be named.
“Several houses caught fire and were damaged in the shelling in the Uri sector...one woman was killed and another injured in overnight shelling,” the official said.
Sirens blared for more than two hours on Friday in India’s border city of Amritsar, which houses the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs, and residents were asked to remain indoors.
Ansab, a student at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture, Science and Technology in Jammu city, which was among the places where blasts were heard overnight, said the explosions were “more violent and louder” around 4 a.m.
“For two to three minutes it became very loud, windows started shaking as if they will break,” she said, adding the air was “smoggy” later — a mixture of smoke and fog.
World powers from the US to China have urged the two countries to calm tensions, and US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday reiterated the call for de-escalation.
“We want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible. We can’t control these countries, though,” he said in an interview on Fox News show “The Story with Martha MacCallum.”
The relationship between Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan has been fraught with tension since they became separate countries after attaining independence from colonial British rule in 1947.
Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region, has been at the heart of the hostility and they have fought two of their three wars over the region.
Trump, Starmer hail limited US-UK trade deal, but 10 percent duties remain
- Starmer says ‘historic’ deal to expand US-UK trade
- Deal opens ‘a tremendous market’ for the US: Trump
WASHINGTON/LONDON: US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday announced a limited bilateral trade agreement that leaves in place Trump’s 10 percent tariffs on British exports, modestly expands agricultural access for both countries and lowers prohibitive US duties on British car exports.
The “general terms” agreement is the first of dozens of tariff-lowering deals that Trump expects to land in coming weeks after upending the global trading system with steep new import taxes aimed at shrinking a $1.2 trillion US goods trade deficit.
Trump hailed the deal in the Oval Office with Starmer patched in on a speaker phone, as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and top trade negotiator Jamieson Greer head to Switzerland to launch negotiations with Chinese negotiators.
He pushed back against seeing the UK deal as a template for other negotiations, saying that Britain “made a good deal” and that many other trading partners may end up with much higher final tariffs because of their large US trade surpluses.
In April, Trump imposed reciprocal duties of up to 50 percent on goods from 57 trading partners including the European Union, pausing them days later to allow time for negotiations until July 9. He has also heaped new 25 percent tariffs on auto imports, ended all exemptions on steel and aluminum duties, and announced new tariff probes on pharmaceuticals, copper, lumber and semiconductors. This week he added movies to the list.
“It opens up a tremendous market for us,” Trump told reporters, noting that he had not fully understood the restrictions facing American firms doing business in Britain.
“This is a really fantastic, historic day,” Starmer said, noting that the announcement came nearly at the same hour 80 years ago when World War Two ended in Europe. “This is going to boost trade between and across our countries, it’s going to not only protect jobs, but create jobs, opening market access.”
The two leaders heralded the plan as a “breakthrough deal” that lowers average British tariffs on US goods to 1.8 percent from 5.1 percent but keeps in place a 10 percent tariff on British goods.
A UK official told reporters that the United States and the United Kingdom have more serious work to do, and noted the deal did not include Washington’s demand for restructuring of Britain’s digital services tax, levied at 2 percent of UK revenue for online marketplaces. Washington could revisit the issue, but there was no agreed process for doing so, the official said.
“This is not a finished, classic ‘bells and whistles’ free trade agreement. It started off as a tactical response to President Trump’s tariffs, but actually morphed into a more substantive trade deal,” the official said. “And it will be built on. ... We’ve done the Oval Office, now we’ve got more serious work to do.”
Trump’s first trade deal fueled a rally on Wall Street, sending major US indexes briefly up over 1 percent. The S&P 500 passenger airlines index closed up 5.4 percent, led by a 7.2 percent surge in Delta Air Lines as US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said British-made Rolls-Royce engines would enter the US duty-free.
Trump’s administration has been under pressure from investors to strike deals and de-escalate its tariff war after the US president’s often chaotic policymaking upended global trade with friends and foe alike, threatening to stoke inflation and tip the global and US economies into recession.
Lutnick told CNBC on Thursday that Washington will roll out dozens of trade deals over the next month.
Trump’s biggest challenge, however, is resolving a virtual trade embargo between the US and China, with tariffs of 145 percent and 125 percent, respectively on each side. Greer and Bessent will lead talks with Chinese officials in Switzerland, on Saturday and Sunday. Trump said the talks would be substantive — more than an ice-breaker — and predicted the tariffs would come down.
Warm relationship, some disappointment
The British-American Business group expressed disappointment that the deal leaves in place Trump’s 10 percent tariffs for many products, including cars, raising costs for UK exporters. It said it hoped that the deal would be a start of deeper US-UK trade integration including the digital economy.
The deal will provide potential new export opportunities for American producers worth $5 billion a year, Lutnick said, while the higher tariffs would generate $6 billion in annual US revenue.
It will reduce US tariffs on British auto imports to 10 percent from the current 27.5 percent, according to a UK statement. The lower rate will apply to a quota of 100,000 British vehicles, almost the total exported to the US last year.
US tariffs on imports from the struggling UK steel industry will fall to zero from 25 percent, while Britain’s 19 percent tariffs on US ethanol will fall to zero through a 1.4 billion-liter quota that far exceeds US exports last to the UK last year.
Both sides have agreed to new reciprocal market access on beef, with UK farmers given a first-ever tariff-free quota for 13,000 metric tons.
There will be no weakening of UK food standards on imports, despite repeated entreaties by the US side.
Crucially there will be no weakening of UK food standards on US beef imports, which was an election manifesto pledge for the Labour government. That means US beef bred with growth hormones still won’t be allowed in.
US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the deal would “exponentially increase” US beef exports to Britain.
But much depends on whether American beef could compete with the British beef on price and find favor with British consumers.
Currently 100 percent of the fresh beef sold by Britain’s two biggest supermarket chains Tesco and Sainsbury’s is British and Irish.
Details were scant on tariffs on UK pharmaceuticals imports, which could damage AstraZeneca and GSK, although a White House fact sheet said the deal would create a secure pharma supply chain.
The US agreed to give Britain preferential treatment in any further tariffs imposed under Section 232 national security investigations, which include ongoing probes of pharmaceutical and semiconductor imports. GSK and AstraZeneca declined comment.
In addition to assurances “future-proofing” Britain from additional sectoral tariffs, the UK official also welcomed Trump’s assurance during the Oval Office event on finding ways to avoid his new push to tariff foreign-made movies.
Starmer’s government has been seeking to build new trading relationships post-Brexit with the US, China and the EU without moving so far toward one bloc that it angers the others.
With the British economy struggling to grow, the tariffs had added to the pressure on his government.
Jaguar Land Rover paused its shipments to the US for a month and the government was forced to seize control of British Steel to keep it operating.
Economists and one FTSE 100 chief executive said the immediate economic impact of a tariff deal was likely to be limited, but that trade agreements in general would help long-term growth. Britain struck a free trade agreement with India this week.
